Music

• Kabuki theatre - classical Japanese dance drama.it was invented by kyoto shrine maiden, Izumo Okuni


  Around 1600
• Kabuki theatre reached its peak during the Edo era

  1616 to 1853
• Kabuki


  The most popular form of traditional Japanese theatre, meaning "the art of singing and dancing"
• Categories of Kabuki


  • Historical plays (Jidaimono)
  • Domestic Plays (Sewamono)
  • Dance Dramas (Shosagoto)
• Historical plays (Jidaimono)


  • Feature historical plots and characters, often famous samurai battles
• Domestic Plays (Sewamono)


  • Domestic stories focusing on commoners such as villagers and townspeople, telling of family and romantic drama
• Dance Dramas (Shosagoto)


  • Deals with the world of spirits and animals
• Aragoto


  • A rough style of acting with exaggerated actions, dramatic eye-catching makeup, and elaborately designed costumes
• Kumadori


  • A major style that uses dark lines to create a mask-like effect on the performer's face
• Onnagata/Oyama


  • Actors who play female roles
• Kabuki theatre


  • Has dynamic stage sets such as a large, revolving stage and scenic backdrops and trapdoors for surprise entrances or prompt changing of scenes
• Debayashi (on-stage ensemble)


  • Accompaniment made up of the Hayashi ensemble and later on, the shamisen, a kind of kabuki music played on stage by performers
• Joruri


  • A form of traditional Japanese narrative music in which a tayu sings to the accompaniment of the bunraku, traditional Japanese puppet theatre
• Geza (off-stage music)


  • Provides moods, sets scenes, and gives musical clues as to location or action
• Kamite (stage left)


  • Where you will see the important or high-ranking characters
• Shimote (stage right)


  • Occupied by lower-ranking characters
• Footbridge (hamamichi)


  • Serves as the entrance and exits of the performers
• Noh Drama


  • A mysterious, tragic, usually supernatural and ceremonial music dance-drama
• Noh Drama


  • About 240 Noh texts written about 500 years ago
• Noh Drama


  • Focuses on a single character, the shite, who is interrogated, prompted and challenged by the waki
• Noh Theatre


  • More symbolic, poetic, spiritual, and serious in tone, focusing strongly on the strict performance of set forms